Infant&#39;s garment



Feb; 1 1, 1936. F. QBEHRNGER INFANTS GARMENT Filed Feb. 27, 1935 INVENTOR Ai'TORNEY Patented Feb. 11, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,030,001 INFANTS GARMENT Frames Behringcr, New York, N. Y. Application February 27, 1935, Serial No. 8,456

2 Claims.

It is an object of my invention to provide a garment for infants, which will not only be comfortable and warm for the child when awake, but which is also adapted as a sleeping garment.

My further object is to provide a garment of this type, which will be inexpensive to manufacture. I also desire to provide suitable and proper fastenings for sleeves neck and skirt and for attachment to crib or carriage, when the child is asleep.

My further object is to-provide a garment which will conform to the body above the waist, but which will be loose, comfortable and readily adjustable below the waist and which bottom portion also forms a spread when the child is asleep, and enables it to rest in comfort without restraining or binding parts. It gives the child normal and natural motion.

Further, the construction of my garment is such that the childs pads and diapers can readily be changed without removing the child from the warm bed. These and further objects will be more readily understood byreference to the accompanying drawing, in which like numbers refer to like parts in the several views.

Figure 1 is a prospective view of the garment with the bottom portion in developed position.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the child in a crib or carriage.

Figure 3 shows a front view of the garment in position as on the child.

Figure 4 shows a rear view of the same.

Figure 5 shows a partial section along the plane Z--Z of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing, l is the upper or formed part of the garment which may be made of any warm sturdy material, preferably a canton flannel. This formed portion comprises the sleeves 2, with suitable hand openings 3, disposed toward the front. The portion I may be terminated and end in a gathering tape 4, preferably elastic, across one half of the waist of theline of the garment. In the front, however, the blouse I continues in one piece to run out at right angles from the under arm seams on each side of the waist line and down to any length and width desired, to form a. rectangular skirt 5, which folds across and overlaps as shown in Figure 4, and ties in place about the waist of the child with the ribbons 6 in a wrap-around fashion. The blouse of this garment has a round close fitting neck I, with openings 8 down each shoulder. These openings are long enough to permit it to pass easily over the childs head and may be closed at each side of the neck by the tapes 9. The sleeves,

as will be seen from the drawing, preferably end in mittens l0 and the sleeves are narrower at the wrist where the slits or openings 3 are cut down the center of the front of each mitten, long enough to permit the passage of the childs hands past the narrow section and on into the mittens. These longitudinal slits may be tied by the ribbons or tapes I I, which tapes preferably bisect the length of the slit 3 at the center, one on each side of the slit. Of course, in warmer weather, the hand may be thrust through the longitudinal openings 3 and the mittens tied back with the same tapes. The tapes 6, or in fact, any of my tapes may be made of suitable elastic composition materials. Of course, I may put either an elastic tape 6 or an elastic tab l3, with a ribbon, non-elastic tape running through it.

It will be observed that the blouse is made sumciently roomy to permit freedom in the garment and to provide for any amount of underclothing to protect the chest, since the freedom of the arms necessitates that they and the upper chest be outside of the blankets or quilts when the child is asleep. The front of the blouse, excluding the sleeves, may in one embodiment, be made of a double layer of material for added protection to the. chest. The elastic tape 4, at the rear, gathers the wide blouse into a snug waist line. This provides a surplus of material in the front blouse as the front of the blouse is cut to the same size as the back of the blouse. This surplus in the front makes room for the roundness of the childs body and is held snugly over it by the elastic tape at the back. When the child must be removed from his warm bed, crib or carriage, into a cooler room, he may be quickly and easily encased in the skirt 5, which may then be tied about the waist by the tapes 6, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. When he is put to bed, the skirt may be unwrappedQas shown in Figure 2, and tied to the crib or carriage, by means of a the tapes 6, which tapes may be passed through tabs placed at each side on the top edge of the skirt, as shown in Figure 1, facing outward and parallel to the skirt top. The tabs on the upper edge of the skirt are preferably elastic tape, while those at the bottom of the skirt may be stationary. The top tabs may pass through elastic loop l3, if desired.

It will be observed that this garment meets the objects of my invention. For example, with all the tapes tied to the crib bars, the child is fully protected from the cold because he is securely adjusted under his blankets, quilts or other coverings. Moreover, the elastic tabs at the top of the skirt, combined with the elastic tape in theback waist of the blouse permit the child to roll, turn and sit up, still remaining under his top coverings. His arms are obviously unhampered in their sleeves and can be moved about with that complete freedom so necessary to active healthy children. The elastic tabs, while they permit the child to assume all natural, normal sleeping postures, at the same time, together with the stationary tabs at the bottom of the skirt, unobtrusively restrain the child from the danger of standing up in a cold room and thus avoid the resultant possibility of toppling from the crib. Under the shoulder openings in one preferred embodiment, I may place an added strip of material i2, as shown in Figure 1, similar to a tongue in a shoe, to add strength to the opening as well as warmth to the child.

The stationary tabs at the bottom of the skirt also serve to keep the child from kicking away his coverings and prevent him from working him self up and out from under the blankets. Since this garment may be worn reversed, the child who sleeps on his stomach is dressed in the garment with the elastic across his stomach. The mittens then close over the back of the hand. The skirt is then tied into place as before described and the child sleeps with the same freedom and protection as his brother who sleeps orrhis back. Since this garment is not primarily intended as a cover and requires only the mothers discretion in the necessary amount of covers needed for each prevailing temperature, the problem of meeting changes in temperature is solved. This l ght weight garment, therefore, will not prove too warm for any sudden rise in temperature or for early spring or fall weather. Further, when the child would ordinarily sleep only in his nightgown on warm nights, blankets may beomitted and the skirt employed, either wrapped around the child or spread and tied to the crib as before described. The light weight garment can be laundered with the ease and frequency of the ordinary nightgown since it is neither heavy nor unwieldly when being tubbed. If made of certain materials, such as canton flannel, it also requires no ironing. Yet this light weight garment requires far less laundering than the ordinary night-gown by virtue of the wrap-around feature of theskirt which, when anchored to the bed,

does not fall into a position where it can be wet, the lower part of the child lying as it does directly upon the conventional rubber sheet and pad. When the child needs to have its diapers changed, it is only a matter of moments to do'so without removing him from his warm bed to a table in a cold room. The blankets or other coverings are laid to one side, the bottom tabs of the skirt are untied and the skirt is folded up across the chest of the child. The diapers and pads are then removed and replaced, the skirt is tied back into place and the blankets are tucked over the top and under the mattress.

The mittens are a feature which can be counted upon, not only to keep the childs hand warm but to prevent thumb sucking whatever the weather. Another desirable feature of this garment is the fact that when the child is to spend the night away from home, wrap-a-round nightgown may be spread as always and pinned to the mattress of any sized bed, assuring not only his usual safety and warmth but also, because he is in his familiar garment and attached to the bed in the usual mannenhe is provided with that touch which removes the sense of strangeness in new places, which constitutes a real factor to be overcome. This garment has the further advantage that a child of any age may wear it without resentment because of the fact that he may move his arms freely and can sit up when he desires. With a slight adjustment of the neck design and the weight of the material this garment may be used effectively in the carriage.

Also, there is a means for making the skirt into a tentlike device by two tabs, one toward each outer edge of the skirt at approximately the childs feet, these tabs with their loops facing outward, through which tapes are passed and tied to the upper rectangular railing of the crib, thus raising the skirt up over the feet to enable the child to kick and still remain under cover. The bottom tabs on the skirt tie at the corner posts either just above the mattress or at the top railing, these tabs serving again to keep the child from kicking off his covers.

Also, I plan to reinforce that section of the garment which I have discovered receives the greatest wear and tear, i. e., that, section of the garment where the elastic tape joins to the front of the blouse and where the skirt begins to emerge. If the front of the blouse is made with a double layer of material, excluding sleeves, that under layer continues down past the waist line for an inch and on outalong the top of the skirt, making a border on the top of the skirt flaps an inch deep. Or, if the front blouse is made of a single layer, an inch wide strip of material about two inches above the waist at the under arm seams and running parallel to them, continues downward for an inch past the waist line where it turns at right angles and runs in an inch wide strip bordering the top of the skirt Another point is that of a small eyelet, or but-- tonhole somewhere along the waist line of the front blouse in the appropriate position to accommodate the tape of that half of the skirt which folds under when the garment is to be wrapped around the child and held into place. This principle is essential to all wrap-around garments. There is no way of securing a wraparound piece of apparel unless the ties on the under piece of the skirt can be passed out from underneath. This eyelet is for that purpose. The tape from the under section of the skirt is drawn through the eyelet and ties to the tape of the upper piece of the skirt.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent, is:

1. An infant's garment having an upper formed blouse portion connected with a lower unformed foldable flat skirt portion, said skirt portion being a continuation of the front of the blouse portion only and elastic means disposed in the lower edge in the back of said blouse portion.

2. An infants garment, as claimed in claim 1, having a cut out formed neck in said blouse with means to enclose and fit said neck to the infant when in use, sleeves in said blouse portion, mittens integral with and at the extremities of said sleeves, forwardly disposed slits substantially at the wrist position of said sleeves and means adapted to close said slits. 

